BEAST PANTS REVIEW

Sometimes there are things like that, you don't know exactly why, you just feel it ! It's Her ! The one, with whom you will FINALLY do that trick you've been working on for 8 months. You barely have time to pay the order on the guy's Bigcartel, and you're already waiting feverishly in front of your mailbox. Yeah, no lie between us, it happens to me too, all the time.

Unfortunately, it's sometimes disappointing. The board isn't that good, or the vibe isn't there. Fortunately for this review, that's not what happened with the Beast Pants.

“Hype-story”

Chris Dunlop, the designer behind the Los Angeles brand, makes all his boards by hand, and the quality of finish is there. Perfect edge, careful sanding, milling of the screw holes. Everything is made and chosen with care, top of the line.

With several ultra-productive years behind it (since 2013), the brand Beast Pants has made a place for itself by accumulating the most prestigious collabs from Flatface to Blackriver, through FBS. Its offbeat universe is not foreign either. Based on weed-smoking elves straight out of the satanic plan of an episode of Adventure Time under LSD. The artworks leave no one indifferent and most of the drops are quickly sold out. But if at the beginning, the visuals were systematically made in wood mosaics (splitply), it became a rarer thing today. Chris now uses, most often, a classic heat transfer to affix his designs on his boards. Anyway, the visual identity is strong and recognizable. Its emblematic characters, SmokingCat, Succubeast, BeastSquatch and others, federate an important fanbase around the brand.

“Yeah, yeah but the shape is good ?”

First, the vibe, it is certainly the most personal parameter but anyway, as soon as I put my fingers on the beast, big crush! The test session promised to be awesome.

Mojo test Check ✅

A few on lock tricks later and I'm sure it's solid. A pro board designed by a connoisseur. I chose the Feral shape: subtle tail and nose, medium kick & concave, with a very short wheelbase. The result is perfectly balanced: reactivity and maneuverability. Except for the nose, which I find a bit too low. But the work is there, we find our marks without effort of adaptation, and I insist on it : it's a true quality mark.

Tricks test Check ✅

“WOW ! How much does this little gem cost ?”

40$ for the board (32€) and we add 13$ for shipping to Europe. To get your hands on one of them, you'll have to invest $53 (43€). This brings us to a conclusion :

A manufacturer may use the best materials, put all the care possible and to have the most dope visual of the insta-game, the result in use may be average, or even completely disappointing.

A good mold, a good shape, is THE essential parameter. A long task that requires a lot of research, objectivity and questioning on the designer's side. Besides, the visual of this Beast Pants doesn't appeal to me. But in the end it doesn't matter when you have such a responsive deck under your fingers !

Beyond the vibe, during a test you have to stay factual. And what is more concrete than the handling of a board ? If a deck requires the user to adapt, to force, or to revise his movements to execute his routines, there might be a problem.

The average price of a handmade board by a recognized manufacturer is currently around 30€. So yes, unless you're in America, the shipping costs add 10€ to a bill that becomes expensive with its total of 43€.

But it's an investment that I don't regret one second : the use of this board is so satisfactory ! Beast Pants is one of those few brands that can rightly claim to be among the best. It's not a secret anymore and its good reputation precedes it, now you just have to be very fast during the next drop !

SETUP

Board - Beast Pants Feral shape

Trucks - Blackriver 34mm

Wheels - Blackriver blank street

Tape - Black Velvet